“This is your room now,” I clarify.
His emerald eyes grow huge and his mouth falls open. “All of this is for me?”
I nod. I’m too taken aback to say anything. He is acting like I’m giving him the Taj Mahal. It makes me feel proud and shitty at the same time. It’s a terrible room. There is no need to feel so grateful about it.
He takes the one step that is all that’s needed to reach the bed, and runs a hand reverently over the duvet, as if he is touching spun gold. Suddenly I remember that he has never slept in a bed before. I guess there is just enough room to sleep on the floor if he wants to.
He wanders over to the storage box and examines it. Then he runs his hand over the wall before sitting on the bed and giving me a truly dazzling grin. His eyes sparkle and make mine feel a little teary for some reason.
Has he never had his own room before? Or is he just astonished that monsters would be so nice to him? He still won’t say a word about the hunters he was with, or his past, so I have no idea. Maybe with a bit more time to get used to us and trust us, he will talk. In the meantime, he is just a mystery.
“I’ll leave you to get settled in,” I say.
A look of hurt flashes over Fitz’s face but he can’t be that sad that I’m leaving. I must be seeing things. He has a crush on me but it can’t be that strong.
I give him an awkward nod and flee. Five steps down the hallway and I’m missing him. I groan and walk faster. Fuck. This is a disaster.
Chapter fourteen
Thenextmorning,Igo down to breakfast and find Fitz helping Sarah. The sight warms my heart. The sun is shining again and all feels right with the world.
I take a seat and just watch him for a while. He is following her instructions carefully. It looks like he really is going to settle in and become a true part of the pack. Maybe he really will renounce his hunter past and reform. Seems like he just needed a chance to see what shifters are really like, and it feels good to have helped him discover the truth of his own kind.
He hands me a mug of coffee with a soft smile. I take a sip and nearly gag. It’s far too bitter. He must have burned the beans or something. Still he is trying, that is the main thing. So I smile back at him and drink the coffee.
He blushes and looks away before scurrying back to Sarah’s side. He is acting like a normal sweet omega and part of me really, truly wants to believe that is all he is.
My thoughts turn to his shifting problem. We really need to fix that before the next full moon. Find a permanent solution. Though part of me likes our current solution very much. I grimace at myself and make a mental note to meet with Henry and Callum, to see what we can come up with. A shifter who can’t shift is a tragedy. Besides, he could well still want to spend the moon with me after he is cured. A glorious pack run, followed by bedroom fun is the very best way to celebrate the goddess.
It’s the very opposite of my original plan not to take advantage of his misplaced crush on me. But, damn is this new plan far more alluring. Sighing, I tuck into my eggs and try to recall my morals.
After breakfast, I return to my room to grab some herbs, salt and crystals. I want to check the wards around our territory are defended against magical sabotage.
A wave of dizziness hits me, mere seconds before I’m doubled over by stomach cramps. Pain makes my vision swim. Sweat drips off my brow. I’m crawling to the bathroom before I realize what is happening to me. With fumbling fingers I pull my phone out of my pocket and just about manage to call Henry and croak for help.
It feels like he arrives instantly, but perhaps I passed out for a while. I’m laying on my back, blinking weakly at him. He frowns and kneels beside me. Placing his hands on my abdomen he hums and pulls all the poison out of me with his healer magic.
I sit up with a shuddering gasp as I feel the vile substance leave my body. I am dripping with sweat and trembling but it is over. I can sense that there is going to be no lasting damage. Thanks to Henry and his skills. I guess Fitz didn’t know how good a healer Henry is. The one fatal flaw in his plan.
“Where is he?” I snarl at the poor healer as if he will know.
Then I cast out with my magic and sense Fitz. He is halfway to the boundary already. Because he thinks the wards are going to be down because he believes I’m unconscious or dead.
With a growl, I surge to my feet and run out of the house. I’m running through the woods, hot on his trail before I realize I’ve shifted to my wolf form. I have never been so full of rage in my life. He poisoned me. The little shit poisoned me. And smiled as he did so. Sweet, little Fitz the mistreated victim of cruel hunters does not exist. Sweet little blushing Fitz who has a crush on me, is not real.
The shifter I am hunting down is a traitor to his kind. A hunter in wolf’s clothing. A lying manipulator who seduced his way out of the basement and poisoned me so he could escape the wards. He is probably attempting to reach his hunter friends and lead them all back here to slaughter us all.
The memory of him baring his throat to me, just yesterday, in front of the whole pack, burns through me. His scent, his little moan. It is as if the shifter I’m chasing killed that version of Fitz. A howl escapes me as I run. A song of grief and rage.
I burst through the undergrowth and barrel into him, throwing him face first onto the ground. He freezes and the potent scent of fear rolls off of him. I rest my whole weight on his back and lower my snout to his ear and growl, low and ominous, daring him to move. He shudders but doesn’t move an inch. Lying still and pliant beneath me as he should.
He can’t shift, so it’s only fair I return to my human form. So I do, and now I am naked on top of him. He whimpers and lifts his ass up, grinding it against my cock. My very hard cock. I groan.
An alpha chasing an omega through the woods is the oldest of courtship rituals and it seems neither of our wolves have forgotten it. It explains why, even though the scents of fear and arousal are rolling off of him, he has not been thrown into a heat. His instincts think we are courting. His body thinks I am going to mate him, claim him, make him my own.
He thinks this is just a bit of foreplay. I growl in disgust.
He grinds into me again, and suddenly I am pulling his pants down. The smell of his arousal is burning into my lungs. He spreads his legs in invitation. My fingers find his hole. He is wet and ready for me. With another growl, I push my cock into him. I may be in my human form but I am all animal right now. Nothing but instincts and turbulent emotions.
